THE PERSISTENCE OF AGE DISCRIMINATION IN SHAPING LATE WORKING LIVES

Abstract The aging population and subsequent demographic shift have driven the Extended Working Lives (EWL) agenda to become an important policy goal. However, millions of older workers leave the workforce each year due to unsupportive work environments attributed in part or in whole to ageist policies and practices, raising questions about older workers’ perceptions of themselves in the workforce and what this means for the EWL agenda. Using data from 25 qualitative interviews, our research finds that ageism continues to play a part in the decision-making process of older workers when considering their future. These findings fall into two categories: Age barriers within the workplace and Perceptions. Age barriers within the workplace include tasks or events that incite a feeling of separation from younger peers, such as training, social interaction, and digitization. Perceptions are older workers’ internalized expectations of themselves and their abilities. Our findings suggest these perceptions do not align with the reality for older workers, thus contributing to internalized ageism. The need to target stereotypical attitudes towards older workers was highlighted as an age barrier to employment before the turn of the century. However, despite the Extended working Lives, Active Aging and Fuller Working Lives Agendas changing the policy context around older workers, this research suggests that the same stereotypes continue to pervade older workers both externally from policy and practice and internally in self-perceptions. A life-course approach to policy is needed to improve conditions for older workers and to challenge ageist stereotypes in a meaningful way.

This presentation will identify and describe the team's ongoing efforts in actuating the Implementation phase of the EPIS Framework.Evidence-based strategies include formulating a multidisciplinary implementation team, organizing purveyor and intermediary support, and developing a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) plan.We will highlight the ways in which survey findings were disseminated to the general public and organizational leaders, such as presenting result summaries at city council meetings and in local newspaper articles.The challenges of negotiating survey findings into cohesive program implementation will be discussed, as well as management strategies towards age-related gaps in the implementation process that had not been identified previously.Recent program launches and the ways in which survey results directly informed their delivery will also be reviewed, namely, a free educational guest-speaker event for which over 700 community members attended and a grief-support holiday vigil hosted at a local long-term care facility.This presentation will also review considerations for the project's next steps as it continues to hone its program delivery parameters and eventually enters into the last EPIS phase, Sustainment.Specific foci will include deciding the long-term methods of quality assurance evaluation and program adaptations to revolving community bereavement needs.

PARTICIPATION IN AND EXCLUSION FROM EXTENDED LATE WORKING LIFE DURING THE DEMOGRAPHIC, DIGITAL, AND GREEN TRANSITION Chair: Andreas Motel-Klingebiel
Policies aim to extend working lives by investing in the capacity and employability of older workers, changing the regulatory framework, promoting innovative life-course policies, and advancing lifelong learning, which gains relevance under the impact of increasingly aging populations, digitalisation, and the green transition.However, as some national, branch, and company policies are counterproductive, encouraging early exit and perpetuating ageist training and recruitment practices, working longer may not be equally achievable and beneficial for all workers.This symposium presents research on exclusion and inequality in late working life, providing evidence for policy innovation towards inclusive extended work and sustainable working conditions.It combines comparative multi-level research based on registry and survey data as well as qualitative information.Contributions address the opportunities and limitations of equal and inclusive extended work under the impact of population aging, digitalisation, and the green transition.This includes a conceptual introduction to research and policy on extended late work in Europe during the triple demographic, digital and green transition, an analysis of age discrimination in company and branch policies based on expert interview data, an examination of the perceived significance of lifelong learning for exclusion risks, an analysis of risk experiences associated with extended work, and a commentary discussing the findings in the context of gerontological debates on exclusion and precarity in later life.The (co-)authors represent a mix of early career, mid-career, and senior scholars with interdisciplinary backgrounds from Europe and North America.The audience is invited to discuss concepts, analyses, and conclusions with the presenters.

LATE WORKING LIFE IN THE TRIPLE TRANSITION AND THE GLOBAL PERMACRISIS
Andreas Motel-Klingebiel 1 , Gerd Naegele 2 , Gulin Oylu 3 , Indre Genelyte 3 , and Susanne Kelfve 4 , 1. Linkoping University, Norrköping, Ostergotlands Lan, Sweden, 2. Institut fur Gerontologie, Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, 3. Linkoping University, Linkoping, Ostergotlands Lan, Sweden, 4. Linköping University, Norrköping, Ostergotlands Lan, Sweden Late working life faces multiple challenges in the triple transition of demographic, technological and environmental change and the global permacrisis.This contribution provides a conceptual framework for research on the significance of extended late work for the sustainability, equity, inclusion, and productivity of aging societies, based on an understanding of the three major long-term shifts as a complex triple transition with potentials and challenges for societies, economies, employers, and individuals.This triple transition is embedded in an ongoing and even accelerating societal and economic permacrisis with increased social risks and limited predictability, in which resilience -of economies, life-courses and welfare states -gains importance, while the dominant tetrad of sustainability, equity, inclusion and productivity remains on the European social and economic policy agenda.The presentation introduces a review of European policy reports on aging and late work and introduces results from the research programme EIWO (www.eiwoproject.org)based on Swedish register information and European survey data to illustrate trends and gaps in European late work, research, and policy.The presentation discusses age integration of life and work courses as a systematic strategy to promote quality of life as well as social sustainability, equity, inclusion and productivity and resilience.Participants will gain an understanding of the conceptualization and implementation of gerontological multi-level research on the macro-and micro-social relevance of late working life in the triple transition and the global permacrisis.The aging population and subsequent demographic shift have driven the Extended Working Lives (EWL) agenda to become an important policy goal.However, millions of older workers leave the workforce each year due to unsupportive work environments attributed in part or in whole to ageist policies and practices, raising questions about older workers' perceptions of themselves in the workforce and what this means for the EWL agenda.Using data from 25 qualitative interviews, our research finds that ageism continues to play a part in the decision-making process of older workers when considering their future.These findings fall into two categories: Age barriers within the workplace and Perceptions.Age barriers within the workplace include tasks or events that incite a feeling of separation from younger peers, such as training, social interaction, and digitization.Perceptions are older workers' internalized expectations of themselves and their abilities.Our findings suggest these perceptions do not align with the reality for older workers, thus contributing to internalized ageism.The need to target stereotypical attitudes towards older workers was highlighted as an age barrier to employment before the turn of the century.However, despite the Extended working Lives, Active Aging and Fuller Working Lives Agendas changing the policy context around older workers, this research suggests that the same stereotypes continue to pervade older workers both externally from policy and practice and internally in self-perceptions.A life-course approach to policy is needed to improve conditions for older workers and to challenge ageist stereotypes in a meaningful way.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LIFELONG LEARNING FOR AVOIDING EXCLUSION-POLICY FRAMEWORKS AND EXPERIENCES OF OLDER WORKERS
Nehle Penning 1 , Rachel Crossdale 2 , and Monika Reichert 1 , 1. TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, 2. The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom Qualification requirements in the labour market in Europe have increased across the board.Increasing provision and accessibility of lifelong learning is central to promoting employability among older workers.However, older workers are more likely to lack formal and to hold out of date qualifications.Sweden, Poland, Germany and the UK, despite differences in regime and political approach to lifelong learning, have unequal distribution of access and opportunity.This paper examines how older workers in the four countries assess the role of lifelong learning throughout working life as well as what links to national policies can be identified.The analysis is based on 100 semi-structured and problem-centred interviews in the four countries with older workers (age 55 and older) of different backgrounds (gender, educational level, sector of employment, ethnicity).Content analysis according to Kuckartz (2018) was used as method of analysis.The interview data shows that lifelong learning plays an important role for older workers in the prevention and/or management of exclusion risks throughout working life.However, the potential of lifelong learning for EWL is limited by barriers at the company and regulative level and differences between the public and private sector are noticeable.In late working life, in particular financial constraints as well as ageism lead to inequalities in relation to lifelong learning opportunities.In all four nations a higher priority need to be given to an integral support of lifelong learning throughout the life-course as well as age stereotypes need to be dismantled for a successful EWL agenda.

OLDER WORKERS' AND EMPLOYERS' PERSPECTIVE ON EXTENDING WORKING LIFE: THE CASE OF POLAND
Jolanta Perek-Białas 1 , Anna Urbaniak 2 , Natalia Krygowska-Nowak 2 , and Maria Varlamova 2 , 1. Jagiellonian University, Kraków,Malopolskie,Poland,2. Jagiellonian University Krakow,Krakow,Malopolskie,Poland Extending working life is considered an adequate policy response to population aging and workforce shrinkage.However, in some countries, like Poland, there are still no clear mechanisms supporting extending working life.Poland makes an interesting case, as while the eligible retirement age is one of the lowest in Europe, no plans to increase it are set.The aim of this paper is to present perspectives of older workers and employers on extending working life.We identify factors that constitute supportive and unsupportive working environments from the perspective of older Polish workers and show how employers perceive workers over 50 in the workplace.First, the qualitative component of the programme EIWO 'Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life' is analysed.We draw from 25 semi-structured interviews conducted between June and November of 2021 with men and women aged 55-75 years old working in private and public sectors in Poland.Secondly, the probability survey among Polish employers (n=1,037) was analysed to show the attitudes and perceptions of employers.Older workers working in the public sector feel less satisfied with the financial aspects of employment, less motivated to extend their working lives, and more often describe practices of pushing older workers out of the labour market.The analyses of employees give matching results.These findings highlight that in the absence of a governmental strategy, extending working life is more dependent on employers and employees that might differ among sectors of employment.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF EXTENDED WORKING LIVES: WHAT INSIGHTS DO THE CONCEPTS OF EXCLUSION AND PRECARITY OFFER?
Amanda Grenier, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Amanda Grenier will act as the discussant for the set of papers in this symposia session, bridging insights from European research with North American perspectives.Situated as an attempt to bridge research findings with a larger critical practice of theory-building theory, she will explore what the concepts of exclusion and precarity offer our interpretations of these papers, as well as how the findings of each contribute to the state of knowledge on exclusion and precarity.She will begin with a brief clarification of the definitions and conceptual boundaries of social exclusion and precarity carried out in Europe and North America and situate key findings of the papers as an effort to theorize older workers lives in contemporary conditions.For example, the well-known concept and domains of social exclusion can be considered to offer ways of understanding processes of exclusion at the mezzo level, as exercised through policies, practices, and/or place.Illustrations from the papers will be linked with existing work on exclusion.She will then draw attention to the concept of precarity as a lens of analysis to connect the micro-level vulnerabilities experienced in the working lives of older people with the shifting social and state structures that form the backdrop for older people's lives (and the systems within which European research is carried out).Specific examples will be drawn from the set of papers, and a moderated question and answer period will follow.